Georgia Approves Online Lottery Sales

Online lottery sales could begin by year's end with plans to add a game that mimics the format of a scratch-off ticket.

July 23, 2012

ATLANTA - Georgia will soon be joining Illinois as the next state to make a bold move into online lottery tickets sales.

Last week the Georgia Lottery Corporation Board of Directors voted to launch a plan that would allow consumers to purchase lottery tickets over the Internet, which could begin late this year or early 2013, reports WSBTV.com. Initial offers will be MegaMillions, PowerBall and Fantasy 5, with a "type of game to mimic the format of a scratch-off" in the works.

"(Lotteries) are one of the last industries not to offer our products digitally," lottery president Margaret DeFrancisco told the news source, adding that the revenue would be used for the HOPE Scholarship and pre-K programs. The Georgia Lottery reported record sales ending June 30 of $3.8 billion.

DeFrancisco said that safeguards to ensure players are of legal age and within state borders while playing games online "will be at least as stringent as current protections," writes the news source. The state lottery will also offer a special "iHOPE" debit card, where players deposit money into a bank account to fund card purchases and online games. The card will also act as a conventional pre-paid debit card for retail purchases other than lottery tickets.

"We're hoping to begin to draw some of the people who are cashless, many of whom are young," DeFrancisco told the news source.

The Georgia Association of Convenience Stores is keeping a close eye on the online lottery plan.

For more on online lottery, read "You Can€™t Win" in the April issue of NACS Magazine.

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